Transylvania is a backwater that hasn’t changed in centuries — and that’s a blessing. Go now, before anything happens

Transylvania
is in my blood,” joked Prince Charles. He was claiming kinship with Vlad the
Impaler, the bloodthirsty 15th-century prince on whom Bram Stoker’s Count
Dracula was based. So enamoured is our present-day prince of this remote
part of Romania, local officials say he has just bought his fourth property
there.

It is a region of unenclosed pastures and forests of beech, larch and oak,
which shelter a vast array of wildlife, including wolves and bears. No
wonder Stoker, along with other writers, was inspired by this romantic “land
beyond the forest”.

If this is the Transylvania you’d like to see, now is the time to go. Having
finally convinced the locals that Vlad the Impaler is good for business, the
Romanian authorities recently announced plans to use Transylvania’s vampiric
heritage to attract tourists. Happily, there aren’t any Dracula fun rides
and fake plastic fangs quite yet (sorry, kids). The